AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I had to attempt to redeem it. The problem was that this family didn’t excite me one bit. I didn’t watch their reality show. I didn’t follow them on social media. My greatest wish was that they’d fade into obscurity, so I’d never have to write about them again. For now, I was stuck covering them — it was trying to craft sophisticated entertainment out of The Three Stooges.
I stared at my laptop screen. It was seemingly impossible. My brain screamed with defeat. It was like turning meatloaf into chateaubriand.
Speaking of meatloaf again, I was getting hungry. Maybe a Twix bar would kick-start my creativity. I leaned over to reach into my purse, which was shoehorned in the bottom right drawer of my desk, when my phone rang.
Darn, it was my boss. “Hi, Caroline.”
“In my office.” She wasn’t one to mince words.
“Okay. I’ll be right...” My voice trailed off. She’d already hung up.
It was fairly unusual to be summoned to her office, but I wasn’t worried. My job here was secure. I produced quality pieces and my output was consistent. Maybe, fingers crossed, she had a new assignment for me.
I snatched a pad of paper and a pen from my desk and wound my way through the newsroom. The newsroom was a giant open space crammed with bumper-to-bumper desks, each containing at least two monitors. For as hectic as it all looked, it was a controlled chaos. Phones rang constantly, but most people wore headsets as they worked, so only a few one-sided conversations could be heard.
Caroline’s office was only one floor up, so I took the stairs. She was on the phone when I arrived at her open door, so I knocked lightly on the door frame to get her attention. She looked up and waved me into the chair in front of her desk while she finished with her call.
My boss wasn’t a stylish person. She looked like she spent a grand total of about five minutes on her appearance each morning. Her pin-straight, but thick blonde hair was cut in the shape of a helmet around her head. Her clothes were loose and boxy and always seemed randomly selected. She never wore a stitch of makeup or any jewelry.
Her appearance wasn’t a priority; she channeled all her energy into her job. And she was absolutely amazing at it. She wasn’t just my boss; I considered her a mentor as well. Plus, she’d taken a big chance on me. I owed her so much.
She hung up the phone and glanced up at me. “Would you close the door, please?”
I closed the office door and then returned to my chair, inhaling deeply to calm the skittering of nerves that had settled over me.
She looked me directly in the eye. “What I’m about to tell you doesn’t leave this office.”
I nodded my agreement.
She got straight to the point. “Mindy Blakedale is retiring. Losing her is a blow. She’s been the beating heart of Hollywood Exposé for 12 years. Of course, we’ll milk it for everything we can, but we have six months to transition to the new face of Hollywood Exposé.”
I had met Mindy a few times but never worked directly with her. She was a minor celebrity in her own right and Hollywood Exposé treated her like a queen. She mingled with the peasants only when necessary. It helped that she was married to a famous movie producer who came from old Hollywood royalty. She was a true industry insider.
She folded her arms on top of her desk. “Jack Hoffman and I have been discussing her replacement.”
Mr. Hoffman, as most of the staff called him, was the CEO and controlling shareholder of Hollywood Exposé.
Caroline tapped her thumb twice against the desktop. “As you know, Margot was being groomed as a successor to the position, but then she got snapped up by WCAU. The fool. She’d be sitting pretty right now if she wasn’t so damn impatient.”
My mind was racing. I didn’t want to get ahead of myself, but why was Caroline telling me all this? Was it even possible that I was going to get the mother of all jobs at Hollywood Exposé? A silent squeal of amazement rippled through my brain, but I shut it down quickly. I needed to be on my game. Professional.
“Regardless,”—Caroline waved her hands to dismiss the subject of Margot—“I met with Jack last night and he wants Dawn Chambers to take Mindy’s place. While she’s an excellent choice, I did put in a word on your behalf.”
The ecstatic thrill that had been buzzing in my body was quickly replaced by the sting of rejection. “That was really kind of you. Thanks.”
Caroline smirked. “Dawn has seniority over you. She’s got more time punched and more experience. She’s a great field reporter with terrific instincts, and she’s sat in for Mindy dozens of times over the years. Plus, she scores well behind the camera according to our focus groups.”
Ah, it all made sense. If Dawn wasn’t so damn short, she could be a runway model. She was gorgeous, petite, and stick thin. I had at least 15 pounds on her.
Caroline steepled her fingers. She vaguely looked like a supervillain. “You haven’t had as much on-air work, but the field reports, red carpets, and on-air interviews you’ve done have gone well. And you think more quickly on your feet. Dawn has stumbled a few times in that respect.”
My heart was thumping double time in my chest. I waited for Caroline to continue.
“You’re very natural and composed behind the camera. We think you are very relatable to the audience. Warm and real.”
I knew what her buzzwords meant. I wasn’t a skinny twig, like Dawn, but maybe the audience would appreciate that. Ugh.
I’d watched my interview with Greyson Durant, who was now my boyfriend, at his penthouse when it aired. Grey scoffed when I groaned and said I looked fat. Let’s just say, with the way I looked on screen, I hoped the camera really did add ten pounds. The wardrobe people made the unfortunate choice of putting me in a button-down sleeveless shell that made my upper arms look fat.
